\n The Santa Express, a new feature film shooting in York and on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in Pickering, is due to be released in time for Christmas.\n<\/p>\n
\n Director Daniel Coll, left, and writer Dave Thorp aboard one of the stars of the Santa Express – locomotive Repton (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n Former Doctor Who star and Blue Peter presenter Peter Purves will play Father Christmas in the film.\n<\/p>\n
\n The production company said filming is scheduled to begin \u201cshortly in York and at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, ahead of a planned Christmas 2026 release\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Purves, 87, said it is \u201cnice, at my age, to be doing something totally new”.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It is such a pleasure finally to have the go-ahead on filming this lovely script,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Writer Dave Thorp (Image: Dylan Connell)\n<\/p>\n
\n The fantasy adventure film, written by York-based screenwriter Dave Thorp, follows Bob Browning, a man whose dearest wish is to play Father Christmas aboard his local steam railway.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHis determination finally wins him the job of a lifetime \u2013 but it is not the job, or the world, he expected,\u201d a description of the film by the production company said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cRomance, comedy, excitement and danger run through a festive journey filled with memorable characters, heroes and villains,\u201d it added.\n<\/p>\n
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\n Thorp described the film as a story about childhood, nostalgia, loss and love \u2013 and about rediscovering wonder for adults and children alike.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The film is about the enchantment of Christmas past,\u201d he said. \u201cThose delightful, magical Christmases we can all remember from back when we were maybe nine or ten years old. What happened? Where did they go?”\n<\/p>\n
\n Thorp added: “It takes us on a sentimental journey back to recapture the delights of our childhood, when Christmas was always magical, enchanting and wonderful \u2013 and will be once again!”\n<\/p>\n
\n Director Dan Coll (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n Steam locomotive Repton, a Southern Railway Schools Class 4-4-0, will appear on screen and, at more than 100 tons, \u201cis certainly the biggest star we have ever worked with\u201d, according to director Daniel Coll.\n<\/p>\n
\n Coll said that at 92 years old, the locomotive is \u201cprobably the oldest [star he has worked with] too \u2013 but she is still elegant, graceful and very beautiful. And she fits the story perfectly!”\n<\/p>\n
\n The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is working with Picture Point Films to bring the story to life against the backdrop of the county\u2019s heritage railway and countryside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santa Express, a new feature film shooting in York and on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-754535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}